What is Streaming Video?

A common use for tablets and phones is to view videos.
These may be pre-recorded* or streamed.

Streaming video means that the video information is sent continuously by a streaming service as it is watched.
The video is not recorded on the device but is supplied 'on demand'.
These services may provide movies, sport or TV shows.

ABC iView or SBS On Demand are streaming services provided without subscription by TV stations.
Commercial movie providers such as Netflix and Stan provide movie and TV series as a streaming service on a subscription basis.

Mostly these services will use an app and are paid services that are chosen by the device owner.

Unless the ISP provides the video stream as 'unmetered' or they are only viewed on free Wifi, the data use would be very high and very costly.
Even with unmetered streaming, the viewer must pay for the streaming service subscription.

*Pre-recorded Video

Video that is pre-recorded for mobile devices is beyond the scope of this course.
Software is available to re-record existing DVDs into a compressed version for replay on mobile devices.
Care must be taken with copyright requirements when using these techniques.